Krankenkarriere und Existenzbelastung

Abstract

Abstract A sociological notion of illness is introduced which focuses on extra-medical aspects of the illness processes. As a central analytical category of the sociological notion of illness, the stress upon the individual’s social- financial status has three aspects, namely financial cost, loss or change of job, and impact on family relations. Illness forms a multidimensional career structuring a process of vague and reversible time perspectives. An exploratory study of patient careers (University of California,San Francisco Medical Centre) is described with two aims: first, to clarify the theoretical notions, and, second, to develop a method of dynamic data analysis which owes much to the „Grounded-Theory“ approach.